There are numerous applications where a single large electrical cable is to be connected with a number of smaller cables. One such application is in a telephone office or large office building where the stub cables leading from a telephone switchboard are to be connected to a riser cable which is itself connected to cables bringing service to subscribers. The riser cable may have from 300 to 2700 twisted pairs of wires, or in other words up to 5400 wires. Present practice is to random splice by hand the stubs to the riser cable, an operation which can take a competent splicer up to 80 hours. Further, seven extra feet of wire is normally provided for each conductor for the splice operation. The resulting bundle of the spliced conductors is large, bulky and rather ugly and the entire bundle must be opened in order to make any change in a connection. A problem also exists in finding and identifying the connection to be changed in the bundle. In addition to the time indicated above for performing the splice operation, an additional 48 hours are normally necessary for test boarding the riser cable at the end which is connected to subscriber lines. The test boarding involves a ringing-out operation to identify the terminal at the switchboard end of the riser cable to which a given conductor at the subscriber-line end of the cable is connected.
From the above, it is apparent that the existing random-splice procedure requires a skilled craftsman and that significant time of such a craftsman is required for each operation. Further, the cable is normally dropped through a chamber or trap where working quarters are relatively tight, so that the extended period of time required to random-splice each cable results in significant congestion and confusion in the area and decreases the overall efficiency of the office operation.
It is therefore apparent that significant savings in time and money could be achieved if an acceptable substitute could be found for random splicing in the connecting of telephone or similar cables. Further savings could be achieved if the connection procedure were simplified to the point where the connections could be performed by semi-skilled rather than highly skilled technicians. Since space in an office is normally at a premium, the connection assembly should be as compact as possible. Further, since the cost per foot of a cable having, for example, 2400 twisted pairs is significant, the amount of extra wire required for the connection operation should be held to a minimum. Finally, the connecting device should provide a reliable, long-life connection which cannot work free or be otherwise spuriously broken, but which may be easily disconnected if desired and on which modifications may be performed easily without affecting the entire assembly.